Gali holds a healing magic ball of water.

Once the bodies were done, the team went to work on the facial features of the characters. Molina and Terry Shakespeare spent many hours developing the way each character’s mask would look when expressing various emotions, such as happiness and sadness. Particular emphasis was placed on eyebrows and lips; and because the movie marks the first time the characters speak, Molina and Terry Shakespeare took extra pains to ensure that each character had a fully functional mouth. Most notably, the animators created a four-prong, mechanical tongue to help with dialogue and make the characters look less puppet-like.

In addition to adapting the Bionicle toys for the big screen, the team also had to invent new characters. The most important was Makuta, the film’s villain, and a character that had only been glimpsed in the comic books. “We applied our ‘Frankenstein principle’ to the creation of Makuta onscreen,” says Terry Shakespeare. “We started taking parts from different Bionicle characters to create the ultimate biomechanical bad guy.”

Three menacing Rahkshi hunt for the Mask of Light.

Molina and Terry Shakespeare applied their Frankenstein principle and worked with the LEGO Company’s design team for the creation of brand-new characters, too. They include Pewku, a retired female racing crab, and a Gukko Bird, composed of Bionicle pieces large enough to transport two characters on her back.

As the CG characters were being developed, the team also worked on visual development. Backgrounds and conceptual art were created and developed by Creative Capers’ team of artists and designers. Backgrounds ranged from lush jungles to flowing rivers of molten lava. With every scene, the designers lavished the utmost care and attention to detail on the smallest elements of the landscape. “We threw in some special features for the die-hard Bionicle fan,” says Thompson. “Close-up on the leaves, for example, show bits of circuitry, which is what you would expect in a biomechanical universe. The Bionicle written language also shows up inside the actual Mask of Light, inside a cave, on a highway sign and in the closing credits.”